Celebrating Animals at the Birmingham Wildlife Festival

It was great to be at the Birmingham Wildlife Festival this weekend, joined by Freddy the Fox and thousands of animal loving people who attended to learn about wildlife, the threats it faces and more importantly, what they can do to help!

IFAW has been attending the festival each year since it started a few years ago. It's a great event and a chance to meet members of the public, supporters and charity friends to share our work, speak up for wildlife and make our voices count.

The festival was planned many months ago, at a time when nobody thought that there would be a General Election anytime soon. But, as it turned out, it took place just one day after the results of the 2017 snap election were announced.

The Conservatives didn’t achieve the larger majority they were hoping for – as a result, for foxes at least, it was time for a celebration. Many of the speeches delivered to the large crowd, including my own, focussed on the issue of repealing the Hunting Act – an unpopular Conservative manifesto pledge that so many now think alienated voters and may even have cost the Conservatives their majority. So much so, that, as I write, the press is reporting that the free vote on repeal will be dropped from the Queen's speech later this month.

But the event wasn’t just about the speeches. We were all there to spread the word that wildlife matters, and we came armed with our Instagram-style frame to spread positivity for wildlife. Many wildlife lovers posed alongside our very own Freddy the Fox to show that they care about wildlife, including Downtown Abbey star, actor Peter Egan, TV presenter and animal activist Anneka Svenska, friends from the League Against Cruel Sports, Badger Trust, Born Free and more. Thank you to all the lovely wildlife supporters who came and said hello to us on the day!

We were all there for one thing – to show that we care about our wildlife and that we always will.